The proliferation and considerable growth of the Internet and World Wide Web have opened new avenues of content delivery to consumers. Information delivery applications, such as web browsers, have advanced through the years with increasing capabilities and opportunities to transmit and share electronic data. First generation web browsers displayed simple hypertext linked to another file containing additional text. Over time, these browsers have been replaced by more sophisticated, dynamic applications that enable content providers and users alike to interact with each other over a network through the implementation of text, graphics, audio, video and many combinations thereof.
One of the greatest advancements of the Internet and computer networks has revolved around development of encoded audio and video files, such as MP3s. Audio and video content may now be digitally encoded into files and transmitted across one or more networks. Such digital encoding and compression techniques allow a great amount of content to be packaged into a single file, thereby making content more portable.
Spoken-word content has become an increasingly popular means of entertainment. Users may browse and purchase audio-based content over the Internet to download to a portable device. For example, an audiobook or other spoken word audio content may be purchased through an online website and downloaded to a computer or portable media device. A user may then listen to the content subject to any restrictions imposed by the content provider, such as time, re-playing or other restrictions.
Portable media devices such as MP3 players and Apple's iPod® have permeated modern society for use, not only for entertainment purposes, but also for many business applications. These devices are no longer limited to simply playing a user's encoded music files, but instead have become an invaluable means by which regularly updated information, such as electronic news feeds or other updatable content, are provided to and consumed by an end user.
One emerging technology which provides access to electronic content is the distribution of multimedia files through content feeds using the Really Simple Syndication (“RSS”) standard. Content providers may publish a web feed on a hosting site or application. A user wishing to “subscribe” to the content can register or activate a reader, such as a special-purpose application or browser, which will present the user with updated or new content.
Content providers periodically update the information or materials posted on a server or website, and the reader will update what is presented to the user via links to the information. Examples of web sites or readers include personalized web pages from Google or Yahoo! Inc.'s My Yahoo!. When a user subscribes to a particular feed, the reader will poll the server on which the content is stored, looking for updates. If an update is located, the reader will post, or update, the page presented to the user.
The field of content feeds with downloadable content, sometimes referred to as “podcasts,” has become a popular method of sharing and transmitting updated media to a variety of users through RSS feeds. A creator of a podcast, which is generally a downloadable audio or video file, such as an MP3 or MP4 file, simply records and encodes his or her content and posts the podcast to a server or other site which may post the podcast for its users to download. A content provider provides a content feed which users can subscribe to using client applications, such as Apple's iTunes®. A user may download and then transfer those podcasts to a portable media device in order to listen to or watch the podcast at a later time, away from the computer.
Traditional podcasting involves a user's subscribing to a feed by registering the Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) of the feed with a client application, or podcatcher software. The user's personal computer (or other computing device) connects over a network to retrieve the feed URL from the content provider's server through the podcatcher software. The server then returns an RSS-compliant extensible markup language (“XML”) package to the computing device. The computing device extracts an enclosure URL, which has the location of the content, from the XML package. The computing device then retrieves the content file located at the enclosure URL. The computing device then imports, or stores, the content file either on its own storage media, or at another designated location such as a portable media device or player. Typically the podcatcher software periodically polls the server to download updated RSS feeds, whereby the process is then repeated at some interval.
The content provider may require users to register each device in order to facilitate delivery of content. The device, usually a computing device or mobile device player, is registered through a connection to the content provider's servers in which some identifying aspect of the device is stored by the content provider. These identifiers may include hardware serial numbers, device names, device types, etc. Requiring the registration of a device may allow the content provider to maintain control over the content it distributes, such as by preventing unauthorized playback if a device is not registered.
Current methods for subscribing to a podcast, however, are inefficient. A user must register the URL of each feed separately at each destination device or system. For instance, if a user desires to have a particular feed sent to his or her portable media player, home computer and work computer, then the process of registering the feed with a client application must be repeated for each device. This is inconvenient and inefficient for the user.